This invention relates generally to systems and methods for facilitating the self-modification of undesirable health-related behavior in human beings and for facilitating the maintenance of desirable health-related behavior.
Various methodologies and/or systems have been proposed and are publically available to help persons change an unhealthy or otherwise undesirable habitual health-related behavior. The training of persons to help them cease smoking is one such common application. For example, one approach to training persons to break their smoking habit was a plan or regimen provided by National Health Promotions, Inc. under the Service Mark SMOKE STOPPERS.RTM.. That plan made use of a bound, multi-page workbook entitled "Quitter's Countdown: Preparing to Stop," Copyright 1991, by the National Center for Health Promotion. The workbook included a multi-page questionnaire to be filled out by an individual desiring to quit smoking. Following the questionnaire portion in the workbook was a sequence of pages establishing the regimen of the non-smoking plan to be followed by the individual. In particular, those succeeding pages of the workbook included instructions for each successive day of the plan, e.g., instructions for "Day One," "Day Two," etc. These daily instructions were spread out over plural pages in the workbook and included text, charts, diagrams, etc.
Other workbooks have been used as part of smoking cessation plans. For example, as part of the commercialization of its Nicoderm.RTM. nicotine replacement product, SmithKline Beecham provides a workbook or booklet in the form of a calendar having daily instructions which are specifically tailored for the individual based on information provided by the individual. The calendar includes weekly dated pages. In particular, each weekly page bears indicia identifying the date for each of the days of that week, e.g., May 20.sup.th to May 26.sup.th, as well as indicia counting the number of days the individual has been on the plan. For example, if the individual starts the plan on May 20.sup.th the calendar entry for May 20.sup.th has indicia saying "Day One," whereas the calendar entry for May 21.sup.st bears the indicia "Day Two," etc.
While the workbook or calendar approach for providing daily instructions to achieve health-related behavior modification has considerable merit, it is believed to suffer from several drawbacks. One of the most significant drawbacks is that the multi-page format of the materials for each day of the plan tends to overwhelm the individual with excessive information. Moreover, the fact that the workbook is bound and includes all of the materials provided at one time, enables the individual to prematurely view latter stage instructions, which could tend to distract the individual. Further still, if the daily pages include the calendar date, so that the plan is tied to any particular date (e.g., the first day of the plan is June 6th), it is susceptible to deviation by the individual as will be discussed later.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,580 (Strecher) discloses a health-related behavior change and adherence aid system which overcomes various disadvantages of the prior art. The disclosed embodiments of that system are particularly directed to helping a person stop smoking permanently and utilizes the technique of "computer tailoring" to derive a particular regimen to be followed by the individual wishing to stop smoking. To that end, health risk and psychological information is gathered from the individual. That information comprises demographic information relevant to the health risk, history and patterns of the existing health-related behavior, motives to change that behavior, a specific behavior change goal, specific dates for beginning phases of the health-related behavior change process, and barriers to changing the health-related behavior. This data is provided into a computer system for processing to develop a specific or "tailored" plan best suited to that individual to maximize his/her chance of success. Thus, the computer makes use of an algorithm to process the data to produce a customized plan or regimen to be followed. To facilitate the plan the person is provided with a calendar defining the plan and instructions and recommendations for the individual to follow. The calendar is provided to the individual either in the form of a single monthly calendar sheet, i.e., a sheet with spaces for each day of the month, or series of date book pages. In either case the calendar includes spaces containing specific instructions and advice for the individual to follow. Moreover, and quite significantly, each of the days of the calendar are "dated." That is, they bear indicia with the specific calendar date of that day. For example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5 the June calendar is in the form of a grid showing each of the days from June 1.sup.st to June 30.sup.th in its respective space. Each space for each day includes indicia identifying the day, e.g., "Wednesday" along with the date, e.g., June 3.sup.rd. In the exemplary embodiment described and shown in FIG. 5, a specific day is chosen for the individual to begin to stop smoking. That is identified as the "quit" day. In this exemplary embodiment the quit day is Tuesday, June 9.sup.th. The monthly calendar sheet entry for June 9.sup.th includes the printed indicia "QUIT DAY GET RID OF ALL CIGARETTES." Other days of the month also bear a tailored message, e.g., Saturday, June 15.sup.th bears the indicia "STAYING OFF: AVOIDING WEIGHT GAIN, STRESS," Monday, June 15.sup.th bears the indicia "STAYING OFF: NICOTINE THERAPY CHECKUP," etc. In a second, but not illustrated, embodiment the information contained in the spaces of the calendar are stated to be "placed in the spaces for the appropriate diary format, for example, a diary having all or part of a month, week or day per page." Like the first embodiment, each page is "dated," that is, it bears indicia identifying the particular calendar date, e.g., Tuesday, June 9.sup.th.
While the system and methodology of the Strecher patent are generally suitable for their intended purposes, they still leave something to be desired from the standpoint of efficiency and efficacy. In particular, by relying on "dated pages," wherein the particular instructions of the regimen are tied to a specific calendar date (e.g., the quit date being June 9.sup.th), should the individual miss that date or any other and thus get out of synchronism with the plan, he/she may wind up skipping a day or days to get back in synchronism with the regimen. This deviation from the plan may result in its failure. Moreover, by presenting the information in the form of a monthly calendar, like shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, with all the information for each day of the month being perceptible at one time, the individual may be overwhelmed by the information and/or may become distracted by prematurely reading latter day instructions. Thus, it is believed that the system of the Strecher patent provides too much information on the one hand, while also providing too little information on the other. With regard to the latter, it can be seen that the amount of information provided for a specific day is rather limited by the inherent size of the monthly calendar sheet and the particular daily spaces for the daily instructions.
Other prior art methodologies or systems exist for providing information to individuals wishing to modify a habit or some undesirable health-related behavior are found in the following U.S. Pat. No.: 4,951,197 (Mellinger); U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,854 (Behar et al.). Regimen calendars have also been proposed in the patent literature, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,917 (Dubner) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,733 (Busiere).
Notwithstanding the foregoing prior art, a need exists for an effective system and methodology to be used by persons desiring to change an undesirable health-related behavior or to maintain a desirable health-related behavior.